Chapter 12: At the Very Least, We Are Living in This World Right Now
Pa-da.
A golden-yellow bullet fell from mid-air, caught effortlessly by Rast.
Shiltina gazed at Rast for a long while, as he toyed with the bullet and returned her gaze with a clear, innocent look in his eyes.
At first, Shiltina thought it was just another one of Rast’s twisted jokes.
After all, this was neither the time to eat nor sleep, and this bloodstained manor was far from being a suitable restaurant or hotel.
That was, until she saw the boy leave the secret room and genuinely begin picking out ingredients in the manor’s kitchen.
“I don’t know if your War Chariot can forgo food once it reaches a certain rank… but due to the reset, my physical condition now is no different from an ordinary person’s.”
“We haven’t eaten anything since last night. I don’t know about you, but I’m already starving. Besides, using the ‘Lantern Bearer’ ability twice earlier really drained my mental strength. Only a full sleep can restore it.”
Rast found some cold rice, half a matsutake mushroom, milk, and eggs in the kitchen.
He tapped an egg and picked out a rotten one: “Willpower can indeed overcome many things, but the human body ultimately has its limits.”
“Using ‘Nightblade’ must also drain your mental strength. Whether or not you admit it, you’re clearly not in your best state right now.”
“What we’re about to face next isn’t on the same level as those cultists.”
“With your current condition…”
“You’ll die.”
Rast’s tone didn’t sound like a warning, but rather a declaration.
“Five hours.”
“Because of your involvement, we’ve saved five hours in this manor segment compared to the previous loops.”
“In these five hours, eat well, drink enough—even if you can’t sleep, just resting with your eyes closed is fine… Bring your mind and body to their peak condition.”
“Only then do we stand a chance at seizing that one and only fleeting opportunity.”
Shiltina exhaled deeply and sat down on a nearby sofa.
What Rast said wasn’t wrong.
She truly wasn’t at her best right now.
Whether it was the War Chariot or Nightblade, both granted immense combat power at the cost of significant physical and mental exhaustion.
“You're quite eloquent.”
“Thanks for the compliment. It’s a skill I picked up. Sometimes I’d pose as a poor but idealistic speaker in front of the City Assembly building—fastest way to get acquainted with that councilwoman.”
In the kitchen, Rast cracked the raw egg into a bowl, added a bit of salt and chopped scallions, and stirred it with a spoon.
He then found a carrot, slices of ham, and shiitake mushrooms in a cabinet, washed them clean and diced them for later use.
Given what Shiltina had previously seen from Rast, she had expected him to display dazzling culinary skills like when he mixed cocktails—something akin to a royal palace chef in the real world wouldn’t have surprised her.
But what now lay before her could only be described as simple and homey.
“Honestly, I’ve never studied cooking. Appetite, being the easiest desire to satisfy, was also the first one I got bored with.” Rast rolled up his sleeves and lit the stove. “I only know how to make egg fried rice. Xiao Ai taught me how.”
“I didn’t want to learn at first, but Xiao Ai said a guy living on his own must know how to cook, otherwise he’d starve. She forced me to memorize every step.”
Shiltina’s gaze flickered slightly.
This was the first time Rast had ever brought up someone from outside—someone named Xiao Ai.
Who was that? A native projection from Deep Blue Port? But earlier, when he’d mentioned the Lead Dancer or the Councilwoman, Rast hadn’t shown this kind of attitude.
Or perhaps it was someone Rast knew long before all this—before entering the Nightworld, before being trapped in the historic echo of Deep Blue Port?
But since Rast didn’t elaborate, Shiltina didn’t press the matter.
In less than twenty minutes, the fried rice was served on two trays and placed in front of her.
Looking at the steaming, perfectly separated grains of rice.
Shiltina glanced at the compressed energy bar in her hand but ultimately couldn’t bring herself to say, “Thanks, but I brought my own food.”
She sighed. “Didn’t expect you’d be in the mood to cook under these circumstances.”
“If I don’t cook, what are we supposed to eat? Your compressed biscuits?” Rast sat across the table and poured each of them a cup of hot milk.
“While they might be equal in nutritional value, they’re worlds apart in dining experience and psychological comfort.”
Rast said, “In Deep Blue Port, maintaining a complete and healthy mental state is far more important than the energy provided by food.”
“You don’t seem all that eager to leave Deep Blue Port,” Shiltina asked. “If it were me, I’d just want to clear the Nightworld as fast as possible—wouldn’t want to stay even one second longer.”
“No, I do want to leave—far more than you think.”
Rast took a spoonful of fried rice into his mouth. “In the earliest loops, I was just like you—desperately seeking a way out.”
“But after failing again and again, from hope to despair, I eventually went hysterical, self-destructive, even suicidal…”
“Back then, I kept jumping off tall buildings again and again, or hurling myself into the steel factory furnace, feeling my body being scorched to ash by molten metal.”
“Until someone said something to me that stopped me.”
“What did they say?” Shiltina asked instinctively.
“If I kept destroying myself like that, then even if I did one day end this despairing cycle in Deep Blue Port, I’d never be able to live normally in human society again.”
Rast smiled faintly.
“After that, I started trying to live as a resident of this city—to blend into this port town. Even if the life I experienced lasted less than a day, the brevity was a blessing, letting me live out various people’s lives in different ways.”
“After trying that for a while, I finally felt alive again… no longer a wandering soul trapped in Deep Blue Port, lingering day and night without release.”
He looked out at the sky, which was starting to lighten.
“No matter what the outside world is like, no matter what fate awaits this little port town.”
“At the very least, in this moment, we live in Deep Blue Port.”
“Live in this world.”